Listen to Jay-Z’s New Song About His Controversial Cuba Trip

We may not get that Beyoncé-directed, Beyoncé-produced, and Beyoncé-starring documentary about the Grammy winner’s recent trip to Cuba that we had been hoping for, but Beyoncé’s husband, Jay-Z, who was also on the “cultural” excursion, has just issued a song addressing the recent controversy. Titled “Open Letter,” Jay-Z raps, “I done turned Havana into Atlanta” and “Boy from the hood, I got White House clearance . . . Politicians never did shit for me except lie to me, distort history . . . They wanna give me jail time and a fine. Fine, let me commit a real crime.”

On Wednesday, the Treasury Department indicated that officials there did, indeed, authorize the visit as an “educational exchange trip” but did not realize that Beyoncé and Jay-Z were the travelers in question. A spokesperson told Politico on Wednesday, “[T]hat while a travel organizer submitted a request for a Cuba cultural trip, the request did not include a list of attendees.”

Although Beyoncé and Jay-Z hosted a fund-raiser for Barack Obama last September and Beyoncé memorably sang at his most recent inauguration, their travel-planning apparently had nothing to do with the president. The White House has confirmed that the Treasury Department gave the go-ahead for the visit. Nevertheless, Jay-Z does name-drop the president in his new song. “Hear the freedom in my speech,” he raps, “Obama said, ‘Chill you gonna get me impeached.’ You don’t need this shit anyway, chill with me on the beach.”

As for Jay-Z’s personal review of the island, he notes in “Open Letter”: “I’m in Cuba, I love Cubans. This communist talk is so confusing.”